“This most recent action, involving more than three hundred defendants and more than $830 million in alleged COVID-19 fraud, sends a clear message: The COVID-19 public health emergency might be over, but the Justice Department’s work to identify and prosecute those who stole the pandemic relief budget is far from exhausted. “Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
GOP TARGETS BILLION IN COVID FRAUD WITH NEW LAW: ‘THE BIGGEST U. S. TAXPAYER DOLLAR STORY IN HISTORY’
The three-month operation, which ended in July, resulted in the indictment of more than three hundred people, underscoring the scale of the fraud.
“We will remain there as long as necessary,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who led a meeting of law enforcement officials broadcast on the Justice Ministry website.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, accompanied by Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco, speaks at a meeting at the Justice Department in Washington on June 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
An Associated Press investigation published in June found that fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funds; Another $123 billion wasted or wasted.
Most of the cash was recovered from three major pandemic relief initiatives, designed to help small businesses and those unemployed by the economic turmoil caused by the pandemic. Nearly 3,200 defendants have been charged with COVID-19-related aid fraud, according to new figures from the Justice Department. Approximately $1. 4 billion in stolen pandemic aid was seized.
The federal government wasted “at least” $191 billion on COVID-related unemployment claims, according to the Department of Labor’s watchdog
The murder-for-money case involved alleged members of a Milwaukee gang known as the Wild 100s, according to court records. Federal prosecutors said they stole millions of dollars in pandemic unemployment assistance and used some of that cash to buy guns. drugs and to pay for the murder of a person.
The federal indictment identifies the victim in the Wisconsin case only by the initials N. B. And it does not specify how much of the looted cash was used to finance the murder.
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The Justice Department also announced Wednesday that it is creating more strike forces to fight COVID-19 fraud in Colorado and New Jersey, joining those already in position in California, Florida and Maryland.
“I don’t see an end,” said Mike Galdo, acting director of the Department of COVID-19 Control. “From what we saw of the scale of the fraud, I don’t see the end of our work. “